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PROCEEDINGS AND SPEECHES 



ATA 



MEETING FOR THE PROMOTION 



CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE 



¥NITED STATES, 



HUB AT 



* 

THE CAPITOL, IN WASHINGTON CITY. 

February 34, 1833. 



WASHINGTON: 



PRINTED BY WAT AND GIDEON. 

1333. 



/ 



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> 



PROCEEDINGS, &c 



On application by the Honorable Richard M. Johnson, mem- 
ber of Congress from Kentucky, the House of Representatives 
granted the use of the Hall for the purpose of holding a meeting on 
the evening of the 24th 1 'instant, for the PROMOTION OF THE 
CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Pursuant to pub'ic notice, the meeting assembled; and at seven 
o'clock P. M. was called to order by the Honorable Felix Grun- 
dy, United States Senator from Tennessee, who moved that the 
Honorable LEWIS CASS, Secretary of War, take the Chair. 
The Honorable Gideon Tomlinson, United States Senator from 
Connecticut, moved that the Honorable John Blair, member of 
Congress from Tennessee, be appointed Secretary of the meeting. 
The Rev. IViViam Hammet, chaplain to the House of Represen- 
tatives, addressed the Throne of Grace; after which, the Chairman 
delivered the following adlress: 

I have been requested to introduce the proceedings of the 
evening, and to explain the objects of this assemblage, and the 
views and motives of those who have called it. And I do this 
with the less reluctance, even in this hall of legislation* be- 
cause the evils of intemperance, ajjainst which we are called to 
bear our testimony, and in the suppression of which our co opera- 
tion is demanded, have passed, like the blast of the desert, over 
this fair land. 

Our Government rests upon public opinion, and public opinion, 
to be safe, must be virtuous, as well as enlightened. This magnifi- 
cent depository of power would soon become as desolate as the mon- 
uments of departed freedom, which hallow, while they sadden, the 
fairest regions of the old world, if it were not guarded by the 
virtue and intelligence of the American people and their repre- 
sentatives. All, therefore, are interested in the great cause of 
public morals, and the united exertions of all maybe demanded, 
whenever an important melioration is proposed in the condition 
of the community The great avenues of communication diverge 
from this seat of empire to every section of our extensive repub- 
lic, and the most salutary impression may, therefore, be here made 
up-jii the public mind by eftbrts, founded in benevolence and di- 
rected by wisdom. 

And it is one of the great characteristics of the age in which 
we live, that men are now uniting tor the accomplishment of ob 



jects, upon which the peace and welfare of society must rest, with 
a firmness of resolution, a contempt of danger, a sacrifice of 
personal considerations, and a spirit of active benevolence, which 
offer the fairest prospects of success. The messengers of glad 
tidings are despatched through the world, carrying the word of 
life and light to the arctic and the torrid regions, to islands and 
continents, to Christian and Paynim; and already the song of 
triumph and gratitude is heard from the Eastern and the Southern 
oceans, and wherever the herald of the Cross has carried the 
name of the Redeemer and the great plan of salvation. Beauti- 
fully indeed has this scene been described by one, wh<-, in faith 
and fervor, in principle and practice, approached the model of 
the primitive ages, and who was himself a martyr to these holv 
labors. 

"From Greenland's icy mountains, 

From India's coral strand, 
Where Airic's sunny fountains 

Roll down their golden sand, 
From many an ancient river, 

From many a palmy plain, 
They call us to deliver 

Their land from error's chain. 

What though the spicy >reezes 

Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle; 
Though ev'ry prospect pleases, 

And only man is vile: 
In vain with lavish kindness, 

The gifts of God are strewn; 
The heathen in his blindness 

Bow s down to wood and stone. 

Shall we, whose souls are lighted 

With wisdom from on high, 
Shall we, to men benighted 

The lamp of life deny ? 
Salvation! Oh, Salvation! 

The joyful sound proclaim, 
Till each remotest nation 

Has learnt Messiah's name! 

Waft, waft, ye -vinds, his story, 

And you, ye waters, roll, 
Till, like a sea of glory, 

It spreads from pole to pole; 
Till o'er our ransom'd nature, 

The Lamb, for sinners slain, 
Redeemer, King, Creator, 

In bliss returns to reign " 

Associations are formed for the promotion bf all the great ob- 
jects of moral concern, to the attainment of which individual ex- 
ertions would be inadequate, and where common means and com- 



mon efforts can be used. For the propagation of the gospel, for 
the suppression of vice, for the education of youth, and generally 
for whatever can give knowledge to ignorance, stability to pvinci-- 
pie, or confidence to virtue. By this union, objects assume a 
greater magnitude. Efforts, upon an increased scale of useful ness, 
are planned and prosecuted for their attainment The necessary 
funds are procured and expended. Emulation is excited, andl 
pride and principle are brought to act in harmonious co-opera< ion. 
Let no one contemn the means, and pronounce them insufficient for 
the end. Who shall limit the effect of human exertions, when di- 
rected to human improvement? In looking back upon the progress 
of society, how apparently slight do we find the causes, which, 
have produced the most lasting impressions upon the family of 
man I need not seek to illustrate the observation by examples. 
They abound in every page of history. 

With similar views, societies have been instituted for the sup- 
pression of intemperance Already their standards have been 
unfurled in the old and the new world, and able, zealous, and 
pious men have gathered round them and girded themselves for 
the combat. Let us trust in God, that the victory will be theirs. 
But the triumph will belong to human nature. Such a victory 
as no warrior ever gained, and such a triumph as the Imperial Re- 
public, in the brightest days of her splendour, never decreed to 
the proudest of her victors. 

The general statistics of intemperance I did not come here to 
collect and discuss. I have no disposition to count the number of 
ruined men, of wretched families, of lost estates, which this pre- 
valent vice has occasioned in our country. It is an inquiry full 
of instruction, but full likewise of dismay. Calculations have 
been made, shewing the enormous quantity of ardent spirits annu- 
ally made and consumed, and the waste of time and money en- 
tailed upon the community. It is difficult to appreciate the value 
of quantities and numbers, which are far beyond our accustomed 
range of observation Their very immensity becomes over-power- 
ing. Ingenious men have, therefore, presented this subject in vari- 
ous aspects, thai we may separately survey the members of a group, 
which collectively, is beyond the reach of our faculties. For the 
result, I must refer you to the many statements and expositions, 
which have appeared in the periodical publications of the day 
You will find ample food for contemplation and regret 1 cannot, 
feowever, but advert to one fact, which has been stated, and which 
will bring the subject to a standard, that is familiar to us. The 
excise, which is levied upon ardent spirits in England, furnishes 
the means of ascertaining the quantity that is sold. And notwith- 
standing the consumption there is far less, in proportion to the po- 
pulation, than here, yet it has been estimated that the quantity of 
gin aUne annually consumed in that country, w»uld form a river 



J 



6 

three feet deep, fifty feet wide and five miles long. Well may 
such a stream be called the river of death! Death to our duties 
and hopes, to our health and happiness, to our fate and prospects, 
on this side of the grave and beyond it. 

Appalling as such views are, they must be steadily regarded, if 
we are disposed to realize the extent of the calamity, or the 
necessity of exertion. In every section of the land, victims of 
intemperance are to be seen. In the cities, in the villages, in 
the fields, among the rich and the poor, ardent spirits., are every- 
where found, and every where there are found men, who will 
sacrifice all considerations, temporal and eternal, to this indul- 
gence. And not satisfied with these suicidal efforts, we have 
planted this Upas tree in the forests and prairies, wherever a 
remnant of the primitive people exist, to gather round its branch- 
es, to drink and die. The inheritance of their fathers has de- 
parted from many of them. But this is not the greatest misfortune 
which has befallen them. The white man has given them another 
inheritance He has given them the means of intoxication, and 
the wish to indulge in it. Whoever has surveyed that portion of 
this unhappy race, in immediate contact with our frontiers, must 
be sensible of their degraded condition, and of the great moral 
responsibility we ha* e yet to meet, tor all that has been thus done 
and suffered. Let us hope, that these remnants of an injured 
and dispersed race will soon be gathered together, and establish- 
ed in security and comfort in a region, sufficiently fertile and 
extensive for them and theirs to the latest generations, and 
guarded by impassable barriers against the introduction of this 
destroyer of their happiness. 

In looking upon the practical operation of this habit upon 
society, it is difficult to conceive how any man can put such * 4 an 
enemy into his mouth to steal away his brain." And yet neither 
genius, knowledge, fame, nor power, have always shielded their 
possessors from its first approach and final conquest. They may 
have struggled and probably did. But many of them have fallen, 
monuments of human weakness and human instability. It were 
invidious to point out the stars in our constellations of patriots 
and statesmen, of learned and elevated men, which have been 
obscured or extinguished by this moral darkness. Names, that 
would have been " familiar to us all as household words," and 
would have gone down to posterity, honored and regarded, are 
now remembered, but " to point a moral or adorn a tale" 

And what motive can operate upon human nature, with suffi- 
cient force, to produce these consequences. To induce us to dis- 
regard all the warning considerations which are in ceaseless ope- 
ration, appealing to ti.ehead and the heart, to the present and the 
future, to time and eternity? Can it be the momentary pleasure 
of drinking, tr the momentary excitement it produces? ,, The 



wretch, who set fire to the pride of Ephesus, that he might earn 
for himself an immortality of infamy, acted a rational part, when 
compared with him, who sacrifices himself ajt the shrine of unhal- 
lowed appetite. But these excitements, joyous and desirable as 
they appear, are always purchased at a high price It is a law of 
our nature, impressed for wise purposes upon the system, that 
alternations of excitement and exhaustion sh uld succeed each 
other. The vibrations are equal, or rather the amount of pain far 
exceeds that of enjoyment. If to day we yield to stimulating 
pleasures, we contract a debt, which to-morrow must pay. Were 
neither physical nor moral evils entailed upon us by vicious in- 
dulgence, there would still be nothing gained by yielding to it — 
The balance of enjoyment would at best be stationary; and not 
merely stationary — for the possession of undisturbed faculties 
and of regulated affections is far better than the revels of the 
night, and the despondency of the day. Rut this is a very partial 
view of the subject. No man can indulge in this habit with im- 
punity. Begin as he will, he may go on increasing. What is 
now enough to produce the desired effect, may soon become in- 
sufficient and inoperative. The quantity must be increased, and 
the intervals diminished. The necessary tone can be preserved 
only by gradual additions, and then comes all the train of evils, 
which marks decaying faculties and a ruined constitution. All 
who have eyes to see, must have seen them. They need no de- 
scription here. Unfortunately, they are too common, and too dis- 
gusting, to require or to admit enumeration in such a place as this. 
If, in the whole creation of God, there is one object, more thai 
all others, to be pointed at by the finger of scorn, it is he who 
abandons himself, and all he has and expects, to this destructive 
propensity. The animals around us, ministering to human com- 
fort; every being into which the creator has breathed the breath of 
life, all fulfil their destinies, and perform the parts allotted to 
them; while man, man alone, placed immeasurably above them, 
reduces himself far below, renounces the high duties assigned to 
him. and perishes miserably, lopelessly. Were the wreck thus 
cast upon the strand of life, solitary and unconnected, much as 
we might deplore the evil, there would be less to regret than at 
present. But tht-se unhappy men are united to society by all the 
ties wnich bind society together. They are sons, or brothers, or 
husbands, or fathers With what little remorse the duties of 
these relations are disregard d, t e experience of every day suffi- 
ciently demonstrates. The husband and father seeks in unhal- 
lowed pleasures, those enjoyments his own home would furnish. 
The means, which should be destined to the support of his wife 
and children, are dissipated. His time is consumed, his useful- 
ness destroyed, his emper and habits ruined, and all, who de- 
pend upon him, share in the calamity. Look at our courts of jus- 



8 

tice, our houses of correction, our places of imprisonment. We 
shall find that the vice of intemperance is the root from which 
springs most of the evil, these institutions are designed to prevent 
or punish. The moral faculties are blunted by pernicious habits, 
and all the pride of character annihilated. Wayward passions are 
let loose, and crime follows crime, until the day of retribution ar- 
rives. And of all who are thrown upon public charity by the ac- 
cidents of life, there are few indeed, whose misfortunes may not 
be 'raced to their own habits of inebriation, or to those of their 
kindred, who by nature and law are required to provide for and 
protect them. The child is thus involved in the consequences of 
the parent's guilt, and scenes of depravity are the examples by* 
which he is taught his own duty, and a father's principles. 

Who can cast his eyes abroad upon the fair prospects our coun- 
try presents, and not rejoice that his lot has been cast in this land 
of freedom? But with abundant cause for exertion and gratula- 
tion, we can claim no superioritv over the other nations of the 
earth in this g»*eat characteristic of modern degeneracy. Indeed, 
we have the concurrent testimony of our countrymen, who have 
visited other regions of the world, fortified by the statistical details 
which have been collected and published, that there are many coun- 
tries where this vice is much less prevalent than here. Whence 
this unfortunate difference? There is no want of intelligence, 
virtue, or religion among us, and the energy and efficacy of pub- 
lic opinion are demonstrated in every page of our history. In- 
dustry is here tree from legal restraints, and enterprize from the 
bonds of opinion; and both are sure of their reward. What then 
sends our countrymen from their proper employments, from the 
office, the shop and the field, to scenes of dissipation and the 
haunts of vice? — From abundance to poverty, from happiness to 
misery, from hope to despair? Under less favorable circum- 
stances, far different scenes are elsewhere exhibited. In the 
memorable contest of three days, which gave security to France, 
and hope and confidence to Europe, there is one incident record- 
ed, aotless honorable to the French character than the valor and 
patriotism so triumphantly displayed. It is said that during that 
memorable struggle, not a drunken person was seen in the streets 
of Paris. Gallant and generous nation! Wherever patriotic 
devotion and public morals are honored and esteemed, your con- 
duct will be had in remembrance. In such days and nights of 
anxiety, alarm and exertion, few indeed are the villages in this 
land of freedom, which could make this boast And have we not 
as much cause for public gratitude as the French people? Do we 
not enjoy as full a measure of equal rights, of national prosperity, 
of individual happiness? 

And even in the regions of the east, where the crescent has 
supplanted the cross, and whence literature, science, and free- 



dom have long been banished, this vice is unknown. The* 
sensual paradise of Mahomet admits no inebriated person to its 
promised pleasures. And if the devout Moslem expect to 
share the company of the Houris in the land of spirits, he must 
refrain from the intoxicating bowl, which poisons while it exhili- 
rates Are. we then, who are proud and may well be proud of 
the general intelligence which is spread through the country, and 
of the high privileges we enjoy, are we to place ourselves in the 
front rank of nations, and to bend the knee the lowest to this idol 
of a depraved appetite? To offer our fame and fortune and lives 
to this unhallowed Juggernaut, whose car is steeped in blood, and 
whose wheels have crushed more victims, than ever assembled 
between the Indus and the Ganges, to join the triumphal pro- 
cessions of these disgusting images, which ignorance and super- 
stition have been taught to adore. 

But let us hope, that a brighter day is opening upon us. The 
extent and consequences of this evil are now fully appreciated, 
and the conviction has spread far and wide, that the best interests 
of society require a vigorous and united effort for its suppression. 
A few years only have elapsed, since public attention was drawn 
to the subject. Some zealous individuals proposed the formation 
of societies for the prevention of intemperance, and labored long 
and successfully for their establishment. They had prejudices to 
encounter, interests to contend with, and inveterate habits to 
subdue. But they have seen the triumph of their principles and 
plans. Associations have been formed, both here and in Europe, 
for the accomplishment of this great object. And they are 
earnestly striving to arrest the march ot those, who are on the 
road to destruction, and to fortify those, who are exposed to 
temptation. Destitute of all legal authority, their efforts are 
limned to persuasion, to conviction, to example. The most 
beneficial results have already followed their labors. The manu- 
facture and consumption of ardent v^pirits have been reduced. — 
Maoy have been recalled to a better life and better prospects. — 
And what is far more important, experience has set its seal upon 
the value and practicability of the pian. Ebriety has ceased to 
be the standard of hospitality, nor uoes fashion require its vota- 
ries to convert scenes of rational conviviality into scenes of vice ? 
and sometimes crime. 1 was forcibly impressed with the extent 
of this salutary change, when looking along a well filled table, 
during the past season, in one of our most splendid -team boats, 
those floating palaces which we owe to the genius and enterprize 
of Fulton, 1 perceived that not a drop of ardent spirits was placed 
upon the table, nor demanded by a traveller. 

The voluntary engagements to abstain fiom the use of spirits, 
which are assumed by these associations, operate powerfully upon 
the members. Self respect and the pride of character are mife 
% 



19 

brought to the aid of virtuous principles and just resolutioBS, 
frequently in a contest with habits and appetites, whose strength 
and power can only be fully known to those, who have yielded to 
their dominion. Such pledges are in themselves both virtuous and 
salutary. All societies, having just and definite objects must 
require the members to co-operate in their attainment. This con- 
dition is the very bond of their union, the life preserving princi- 
ple, which gives and maintains their existence — and if any are 
saved by the obligations and associations thus assumed, as mem- 
bers of temperance sccieties, all who are co-laborers in the work, 
are entitled to commendation, and to the respect and gratitude 
of the community. Ask the father, who has seen the son of his 
age and hopes, qualified by -nature, habit, and education, to per- 
form an honorable and useful part on the stage of life; who has 
seen him abandon all these prospects, and become the slave of 
this most disgusting propensity, and the companion of all that is 
vile in the community; ask the father the value of an association, 
which will redeem the lost one from this thraldom, and restore 
him to sopiety, to his friends, to himself. Ask the heart-broken 
wife, who has seen the partner of her cares, the father of her 
children forget all, abandon all, and ruin all that should be near- 
est and dearest to him, and seek pleasure in the abodes of vice 
and intoxication, ask her whether these labors of love and charity 
which pluck the brand from the burning, are useless and inopera- 
tive. Ask the children, whose father is a stranger to their love 
and affection, and who barters their happiness and his own for 
scenes of dissipation and intoxication, and let them calculate the 
value of redemption and their gratitude to those, who break his 
bonds and set the captive free. Ask society, whether the restora- 
tion to a useful and honorable life, of some of its most promising 
but once lost and unhappy members, is not a source of satisfaction 
and gratulation — and ail this has been done and is now doing. 

Who ventures to say, there is no cure for this malady of mind 
and body? No signal of safety, which tan be lifted up, like the 
brazen serpent of old, ano* whereon the afflicted may look and be 
healed? No power of conscience — no regard for the present, no 
dread of the future, which can stay the progress of this desolat- 
ing calamity? It is indeed a disorder, which tails not within the 
province of the physician. Empyricism has prescribed its reme- 
dies, and various nostrums have been administered, with tempora- 
ry success, calculated to nauseate the patient, and thus by asso- 
ciation, to create a revulsion of feeling. But little permanent ad- 
vantage has attended this process. As the habit of intoxication, 
when once permanently engrafted on the constitution, affects the 
mind and body, both become equally debilitated. And restoration 
to health and self-possession can only be expected from a course 
of treatment, which shai! appeal to all the better feelings of our 
nature, and which shall gradually lead the unhappy victim ef hi* 



11 

passions to a better life and to better hopes. The pathology of tae 
disease is sufficiently obvious. The difficulty consists in the entire 
mastery it attains, and in that morbid craving for the habitual ex- 
citement, which is said to be one of the most overpowering feel- 
ings that human nature is destined to encounter. This feeling is 
at once relieved by the accustomed stimulant, and when the re- 
sult is not pleasure merely, but the immediate removal of an 
incubus, preying and pressing upon the heart and intellect, we 
cease to wonder, that men yield to the palliative within their 
reach. That they drink and die. That often, in one brief night, 
they lie down in time and awaken in eternity. 

But important to society as is the change from a life of vicious 
indulgence to one of temperance and virtue, in all those whose 
situation calls for this change, still this subject becomes unimport- 
ant, when compared with the ultimate object of the se, who are 
prosecuting the warfare against this great enemy of the human 
race. They seek not only to cure The malady, but to render its 
recurrence impossible — to save all from the dangers which threaten 
them — To prevent the abuse, by preventing the use, of stimulat 
ing liquors, and thus preparing the way for the entrance upon 
life, of a generation not exposed to this fatal temptation. 

Let then one mighty effort be made, to banish from our land this 
bane of national and individual prosperity. Let there be a union 
of hearts and exertions. Experience and reflection will soon dis- 
close the most practicable plan of effecting the object. Precept 
and example, when they go together, go far in their operation upon 
human affairs. Let them be here united. The nature and extent of 
the evil must be laid open to all. Such an effort would be a cru- 
sade, far holier than thit which sent the nations of Christendom 
to the land of Judea, to seek through battle and slaughter the 
tomb of the Saviour. It would be a crusade of virtue against 
vice. An effort to give tone and strength to public sentiment, and 
to direct it to the attainment of one of the most important objects 
which remains to man to accomplish. Which would reduce the 
black catalogue of crimes and criminals, and give an entire new 
aspect to human affairs. 

It is now conceded by the most profound observers, and the 




ed their operation upon the human system, and with the express 
purpose of ascertaining whether their administration be proper n 
cases of exhaustion from cold or fatigue, have borne testimony to 
their utter inefficacy. Our eminent countryman, Doctor Rush* 
coincides in this opinion, and assert that a small quantity of 
food restores the system to its usual vigor, far better than these 
destructive stimulants, after it has been debilitated by exertiwi er 



12 

suffering. And in some of the most terrible shipwrecks, recorded 
in naval annals, it has been found that the persons, who refrained 
from '^euseof spirits, were better enabled to resist the calami- 
ties impending over them, than those who sought strength and 
consolation in this indulgence Experience upon this subject is 
as decisive, as it is satisfactory. And in the disastrous retreat 
from Moscow, which broke the sceptre of Napoleon, and wrested 
the nations of Europe from his iron grasp, it is recorded by the 
historian-, of the expedition, that the soldiers, who were perfectly 
temperate, resisted the elemental war around them, when the 
general "pulse of life stood still." and when a scene was present- 
ed, which in terrible sublimity surpasses all that the wildest ima- 
gination has ever shadowed forth. When the spirit of the storm 
was abroad, and the chivalry of Europe fled or fell before the 
northern blast, 

" 'aintin his wounds, and shivering- in the blast, 
The (gallant) soldier sunk and groan'd his last, 
File after file the stormy showers benumb, 
Freeze every standard sheet, and hush the drum, 
Horseman and horse confess the bitter pang, 
And arms and warriors fall with hollow clang; 
Yet ere he sank in nature's last repose, 
Ere life's warm torrent to the fountain froze, 
The dying man to (Gallia) turn'd. his eye, 
Thought of his home, and closed it with a sigh." 

The experience of the civilized world, during the past year, 
furnshes another memorable lesson upon this deeply interesting 
(subject-. A lesson which, if properly appreciated, may well con- 
soi as. for all the calamity with which it was accompanied. 
"Wh. has forgotten that desolating pestilence, which, borne on the 
wh - of the wind, traversed the old continent from the frontiers 
of China to the "western limits of Europe! Vainly we hoped the 
Ocean, which separates the hemispheres, would present an im- 
passable barrier to this mighty destroyer. But it came, and with 
it de-pair and death. But there came also the triumph of temperance. 
Fo' - though many a sacrifice was made among the virtuous 
and exemplary, still the stroke fell chiefly upon those, whose con- 
stitutions had been impaired by habitual indulgence, and who were 
Uihs prepared for the disease. 

Too long have those, who are yielding to this propensity, deluded 
themselves and others with this pretence of the necessary use of 
ardent spirits. It is time the foundation were broken up and the 
superstructure demolished. Y\ hat was the state of the ancient 
world* where the process of distillation was unknown: J he 
Arabian chemists w^re the first to introduce it, and not ail the 
dru. 1 Arabia have been able to counteract its pernicious influ- 
ence i here is rfbthing which ieads to the belief, that men were 
less able to endure fatigue, or that the average duration of human 
I ife was shorter. On the contrary, some of the most stupendaus 



13 

monuments of human power were erected in the early. age of the 
Work), and have come down to us unimpaired* surviving die me- 
mory of their founders and the objects of their en istruction. Ex- 
treme longevity was one of the characteristic:.*, of thai period, and 
many of our most fatal disorders were unknown. A Roman sol- 
dier carried a weight of sixty pounds, besides his arms and 
usually marched twenty miles a day. Every night he labored to 
enclose his encampment with a parapet and ditch. No fatigue nor 
exposure exempted an army from this duty, enjoined by the fun- 
damental principles of their military service. Could an American 
soldier, with his daily allowance of spirits, or I may rather say, his 
dailv temptation to drink, do more than this? Carry eighty pounds 
upon his back, march twenty miles a day, and then fortify his 
encampment! To the Roman soldier ardent spirits were un- 
known. To the \merican. they have been the bane of his life, 
and their destructive effects may be traced in every platoon of 
our army. It is to be hoped, that the recent regulations, which 
have been adopted upon this subject, will introduce a new era into 
our military history. Away then with this idle pretence of ne- 
cessitv. The necessity exists no where, but in the apologetic 
answers of those, who, determined not to relinquish this ria7lin°- 
habit, are yet desirous of presenting some excuse to iht mselves 
and others for its indulgence. 

And why is it, that the vice of intemperance is almost wholly 
confined t men? True, we are sometimes appalled by the sight 
of a drunken woman, but such a spectacle is rare, and as. shocking 
as it is unusual. Have they no fatigues to encounter, no sorrows 
to assuage, no maladies to heal? Are they liable to none of the 
common accidents of life, which furnish the excuse for this self 
abasement? They have all these, and more than these: for they 
have husbands, and sons, and fathers, whose neglect and cruelty, 
induced by intemperance, push the endurance ~of human nature 
to ii- utmost limit And yet, under these trying circumstances, 
our females are patient and exemplary; seldom resorting to that 
false solace, which- if it give pleasure to-day, brings woe to-mor- 
row W hence this difference between the sexes: The habits of 
the Li»es of females are opposed to such a practice; their duties 
are faithfully performed at home. The domestic hearth is the 
altar where their human affections are offered, and round this are 
gathered all that makes life desirable, hi joy and sorrow, here 
they are found seeking consolation; not in the bowl, but in the 
practice of those virtues which God has given them, and which 
man has not been able to take away. Let us learn from them, 
thai vicious indulgences are destructive to our health, injurious to 
our morals, subversive of our usefulness and respectability, and 
creating a fearful; balance, which, in toe great day of account,- will 
leave us withouj excuse and without hope. 

But there is fortunately one plain and safe method, by which all 



14 

danger many be avoided. And that is, by entire interdiction. 
Abstinence, and abstinence only, from arden* spirits, will shield 
ns from their injurious consequences. And this, in fact, is the 
only effectual safeguard within our power. He who says to the 
tide of human passion, thus far shalt thou come, but no farther, 
will find his prohibition as little heeded as did the English mon- 
arch, who, erecting his throne upon the brink of the ocean, com- 
manded its tide to be still. All experience demonstrates, that 
we are led by degrees along the path of life. From the smallest 
indulgence, the most inveterate habits arise. And when entering 
upon an untried course, vainly should we attempt to predict the 
consequences. w Lead us not into temptation," is one of the pe- 
titions, we are directed 4 o prefer to the throne of grace A 
petition founded in a perfect knowledge of human nature. 
Temptation is best avoided by sternly resisting its first advances. 
And after all, what is the sacrifice which principle and prudence 
demand? Nothing, that adds to our comfort, that extends our 
knowledge, that fortifices our principles, or that increases our ra- 
tional enjoyment. If there be one individual within these walls, 
who feels conscious he is yielding to the insidious approaches of 
this tempter, let me entreat him to pause, while yet he may. To 
resist the enemy, while victory is wilhin his reach. Let him sur- 
vey the misery around him which this vice has occasioned. Let 
him look behind him, and ask if there is satisfaction. Let him 
look before him, and ask if there is hope. He is travelling a 
road which leads to destruction, and he will soon find himself 
urged onwards by an irresistible impulse, which is at once the 
evidence and the punishment of his guilt. The apples he plucks 
are not from the garden of the Hesperides, fair and golden as 
they appear to him. But, they are the fruit of Sodom and Go- 
morrah — clusters from the Dead sea, filled with bitterness and 
sorrow. And let him not seek consolation in the belief, that he can 
relinquish the practice at pleasure, and that he will restrict him- 
self to such a quantity as will gratify without injuring him. He 
who finds himself in the current of Niagara must labor for life, 
while life is within his reach, to attain the shore and escape. Once 
upon the brink of that, fearful chasm, which no human being has 
passed and lived, swifter than his own fears he is hurried to de- 
struction. And thus it is with those who commit themselves to 
this fatal current of oblivion. When they embark, the stream is 
gentle, and resistance easy. By and by the waters are out upon 
the earth, and they descend with a force and rapidity which mock 
their hopes and baffle their exertions. Jind after death — comes the 
judgment. 

But powerful as are these considerations, they are not all that 
appeal to us If there are trials in the present life, there are like- 
wise mercies. Hours and days of comfort and happiness, which 
are freely offered and may be freely accepted. Can the prtes 



m 

aurea of* the bowl be weighed in the balance with the rational en- 
joyments within our reach? With the tender affections of those 
whose hearts are knit to ours; with the respect of society, with 
the consciousness of doing well and deserving well, and with all 
those moral accompaniments which, if not the reward, are yet the 
sure attendant upon virtuous resolutions and a well spent life. 
To youth, to manhood, and to age, these considerations appeal, 
wrth an energy proportioned to the circumstances of each. All 
hold their destinies, more or less, in their own hands, and whether 
th?se shall be for evil or for good, depends upon the course and 
conduct they may adopt. 

Our exertions then should be extended, as the evil itself has 
extended, from our inland to our maritime frontier, and from the 
St Criox to the Gulf of Mexico. Happy will it be for ourselves, 
still happier for those who are to succeed us, if we can banish 
intemperance from this highly favored land! And if all, who 
acknowledge the importance of the work, will unite in its accom- 
plishment, the object can be attained, certainly and effectually. 
It would be a monument far prouder than the genius of antiquity 
has bequeathed to us, and more useful than any which modem 
wealth and power have erected, for the generations that are to fol- 
low us upon the theatre of life. Mouldering and dilapidated are 
the temples of Athens and of ttome. Lost are the sites of Nine- 
veh and Raby Ion. Forgotten are the countless millions, who have 
filled their places upon the earth and disappeared. But this moral 
victory would live in remembrance until the advent of the pre? 
Bused era, foretold in prophecy and invoked in poetry. 

"When thou, imperial Salem, shalt arise, 

Exalt thy towering head and lift thine eyes; 

See a long line thy spacious courts adorn, 

See future sons and daughters yet unborn, 

In crowding ranks, on every side, arise, 

Demanding life, impatient for the skies; 

Let barbarous nations at thy gates attend, 

Walk in thy light, and in thy temples bend; 

See thy bright altars throng' d with prostrate kings, 

And heap'd with products of Labean springs: 

For thee Idumea's spicy forests blow. 

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. 

See Heaven its sparkling portals wide display, 

And break upon thee in a flood of day. 

5fo more the rising sun shall gild the mom» 

3£or evening Cynthia fill her silver horn; 

But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays, 

One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze 

O'erflow thy courts; the Light himself shall shine, 

Bevealed, and God'a eternal day be thine. 

The Sea shall waste, the skies in smoke decay. 

Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away — 

But fix'd his word, his saving power remains! 

Thy T&&m. forever tests: tfofae own Messiah reigns: 



16 

The Rev. Justin Edwards* Corresponding Secretary of the 
American Tmiper-mce Society, then offered the following resolu- 
tion : 

Resolved, That the success of the cause of temper- 
ance in this, and other countries, affords high encourage- 
ment to the friends of morality to persevere in their 
efforts till intemperance and its evils are banished from 
the earth. 

Mr Chairman, That a great change has taken place in the 
public sentiment and practice with regard to the use of ardent 
spirit, is weli known to all in this assembly. It is a change, iiieat- 
er probably than has ever before been effected by such efforts, on 
such a subject, since the creation. It is spokeu of, not only in 
this country, but in other countries, as one of the wonders of the 
world And mark, sir, its aspect on free institutions, arid upon 
the great cause of civil liberty among he nations A distin- 
guished gentleman in Germany, remarked, *' there must be some- 
thing in America very peculiar; and/ree institutions must be pe- 
culiarly favorable to the influence of truth over the minds ot men; 
otherwise there never could have been effected such a great change 
in he habits of the people as has been witnessed with regard to 
the use of ardent spirit." Ami what, sir, is that changer it is. 
one which, in the course of a few years, has reached every jpart of 
this counfty. More than l,50o,niiO of our countrymen have ceased 
to use ardent spirit. Many of them, a few years ago, used it every 
dav, and without a thought that it was improper; who. by attention 
to rhe subject, in view of the facts which have been developed, 
have come to the fixed and settled conclusion, that it is morally 
wrong for them to use it, or to furnish it for the use of others; be- 
cause it is in their view, injurious to the body and the soul, both for 
this life and the life to come. More than 15v>U men have ceased 
to make it. They do not believe it right, even to accumulate pro- 
perty by such an employment. More than 4«0Up men have ceas- 
ed to sell it. They will not for money continue to be accessory 
to the ruin of their fellow men More than ouO vessels now float 
on the ocean, that do not carry it; vessels which visit every clime, 
and some of which even circumnavigate the globe; and not only 
without injury, but with a manifest increase of the health, the 
comfort, and the safety of the men. Without a drop of what was 
latelv thought to be essential to marine* s, they can navigate poiar 
seas and torrid zones; can ride the mountain wave, and outride 
the storm and the tempest, which would shipwreck a vast portion 
of all the vessels where the men freely use it. And so manitest 
has been the increase of comfort, that the sailor who has taken a 
voyage on board a temperance vessel, has otten been the first to 



1? 

ship en board the same again; and that too, when etlier vessels, 
stored with the poison, in which he might have gone, ha v e s,aife<l 
from the very same port. He prefers, after having nia'e the ex- 
periment, to sail in the temperance ship. And such has been the 
increase of safety, that the rate of insurance has, in such cases,, 
been materially diminished. 

Said an old sea captain, who used to furnish his men with spi- 
rit, and who had several time* been wrecked, *• In every instance it 
was connected with drinking •? For several years he has not car- 
ried spirit, and has not been shipwrecked, f* In a storm," said he, 
u when danger becomes great, sailors begin to drink, and almost 
immediately after they begin to drink, they begin to despar. a?id 
soon give up all for lost, and drink on, till they are lost; when, had 
thev taken none, and done their duty as they would ha I thf y been 
sober, thev had outrode the storm and been safe." * k Never," 
says a distinguished navigator, k * till the sea gives up her dead, 
shall we know how many, through the influence of ardent spirit, 
have found a watery grave." Said the owner of a ship. u I made 
an express agreement with the captain before he sailed, that no 
ardent spirit should be taken on board ; but in violation of that 
agreement, he, in a foreign port, took on board four gallons of 
brandy for his own use, and that four gallons of brandy cost me 
g4w00. Nearly all the losses at sea which I have ever suffered, 
were occasioned by the use of spirit; and I will never send out 
another vessel under the care of any man who uses it. or will take 
it on board." And this change of sentiment, Mr. Chairman, and 
of practice, is becoming general. Nor is it confined to the mer- 
chant service, it extends to the navy. Of 1 107 men belonging to 
the Mediterranean squadron, exclusive of commissioned and war- 
rant officers, 819, according to the statement of Commodore Bid- 
die, have voluntarily relinquished their allowance of spirit. And 
the Secretary of the Navy states, that the Pacific as well as the 
Mediterranean squadron, now, has almost entirely abandoned the 
use of ardent spirit, and that the subsequent improvement in the 
health and conduct of the crews, has become a topic of remark, 
both by the surgeons and the officers. And may we not hope, sir, 
that the time is not distant, when the practice of furnishing sea- 
men with ** daily poison," as a part of the ration, wdl be forever 
done away, [n the army this has actually been accomplished; .ind 
the country, I trust, sir, will not forget to whom they are in- 
debted for the increase of the respectability and moral worth, 
the happiness and strength of that branch of national defence, 
which has been occasioned by this change. 

Nor is this all; more than 50uu drunkaids have, within five 

years, ceased to use intoxicating drink; . nd are, as all other 

drunkards will be. it they pursue that course, sober men. For 

s» perfect is the divine government, that it fe net, possible fat a 

3 



18 

drunkard to be formed under it, except by the violation of the 
laws of that government And even if a man, in violation of those 
laws, has become a drunkard, and sunk to the lowest depths of 
degradation, let him just cease, by his own wickedness to per- 
petuate that degradation, and the providence of God, in a single 
mo'ith, will make him a sober man; and will infallibly keep him 
sober till he dies, on the simple condition, (which I must think is 
most reasonable) that he will just refrain from making himself, by 
his own wickedness, a drunkard And were there no man to d© 
anv thing more to make drunkard* than God does, there would be 
none: and if men will now imitate Him, or only make it their 
grand obj ct to do this, drunkards will cease from under heaven. 
Or if all who are now sober will only continue so, all who will 
not become sober, will soon be removed, no new drunkards will 
be made, and our world will be free. Facts justify the conclu- 
sion, that more than 30,000 in our own country, have already, by 
the change which has taken place, in the public sentiment and 
practice, been saved from becoming drunkards More than 500,- 
000 are now embodied on the plan of abstinence from the use of 
ardent spirit, in more than 4000 temperance societies: twenty-one, 
of these are state societies; and it is beiieved that the time is not 
distant when there will be a state society in every state in the 
Union. 

Nor is this reformation confined to this country It began here, 
but it has not stopped here. VI ore than 100,000 are already em- 
bodied on the same plan, in Great Britain. The Fourth Report 
of the American Temperance Society, and many other temper- 
ance publications from this country, have been republished entire 
in that, and are now in a course of circulation throughout, the king- 
dom. Applications have been made, for American temperance 
publications, from Switzerland, and Germany, and Sweden, and 
various other countries, in all of which temperance societies have 
been formed and are constantly increasing And if we, Mr. 
Chairman, do our duty, the prospect is fair, and strong, that these 
societies will be formed round the globe; and will prepare the way 
for the light and the love, of the holy, illuminating, and purifying 
Spirit to till the whole earth. 

The following resolution and remarks were then submitted by 
the Hon Eleutheros Cooke, member of Congress from Ohio: 

Whereas, the manufacture of, ana traffic in, ardent spirit, are 
a fruitful source of pauperism, misery and crime, deeply in- 
jurious, in their operation, to the pecuniary and moral inte- 
rests of the. community — And Whereas, their abandonment 
presents the only effectual remedy for the evil of intempe- 
rance, therefore 

Unsolved, That they ought to be discountenanced and 



19 



abandoned, as incompatible witb the obligations of social 
and moral duty by every patriot, and especially every 
Christian in the country. 

Tn submitting the resolution just read, Mr Cooke said 
Tie had intentionally directed a blow at the great source and 
fountain of intemperance; for as such, the making and vending 
of ardent spirit might, he thought, be justly denominated. 
He had not, therefore, desired to shrink from the responsibility 
©f calling upon this meeting, not merely to assail some of the 
©utposts of this enemy of the human race, but to smite the head 
of the monster even in his den. Effects ordinarily ceased only 
with their cause; and great evil* could only be removed by break- 
ing up the source from whence they flow, All other measures 
were, in his view, auxiliary to the great purposes of a final con- 
quest- With respect to other embarrassments, the way was al- 
ready paved to victory. Public opinion, said Mr Cooke, is al- 
ready informed of the universality and magnitude of fhr evil. Its 
condemnation is recorded upon adamant, and its omn potence 
Heeds flow only to be directed to its source, to demolish it forever. 
Humanity mourns over its devastations upon the beauty and 
brightness of her primeval empire, and lifts aloud her voice for 
its extermination. Religion, from her sacred desk, confirms that 
voice in her solemn warnings and adjurati «ns. Pa rioti>m catches 
toer appeal, and the best men of our land have come up to the aid 
of the christian and the philanthropist, in expelling this withering 
©urse from our country, and in removing this foul stain from the 
American name. 

Let us, then, since the outposts are taken, and the picquet 
guards have capitulated direct our forces against the strongholds 
of the enemy. Let us carry the war into the head quarter* of 
his army, and as the surest and most effectual means »f drying 
up the fountains of his poison, let us crush and crumble the head 
of the serpent that has neguiled us. Do not mistake me. We 
ask no aid from force; the great cause in which we are strug- 
gling, looks not for success to the arm of civil or military power. 
It wields nor spear, nor sceptre. — Enthroned in the. affections of 
the patriot, the christian and the philanthropist, and based upon the 
everlasting foundations of moral justice; it s h>pes of final victory 
are directed to a higher source. Time, intelligence, enquiry, re- 
flection, perseverance, and the consequent overwhelming power 
of public sentiment, are the great agents that are working out its 
glorious triumph. 

Sir, the terms of the proposed reso'ution may, by some, be 
deemed severe in their requisitions. I do not think si . A brief 
glance at the immeasurable ruin— at the counties* crimes — nii.-e-: 
nes and deaths which the manufacture arid traffic of ardent s-frh 



20 

iks have brougkt upon the human race, will shield it from the in- 
justice of such an imputation. What are the facts? It b; s long 
b?rn settled by the concurrent testimony of the most distinguished 
physicians, that alcohol is a rank and deadly poison — that in its 
effects it resembles arsenic, and that though slower in its opera- 
tion, it is not less certain and destructive in its results. Aye, 
sir, that it is infinitely more so; that it poisons, destroys, kills 
both the body and the mind; that the inevitable tendency of its 
Use is the paralization of the health, the destruction of the human 
constitution; the prostration of morals; the accumulation of crime; 
the augmentation of the sum total of human wickedness and 
human misery; the derangement and stupefaction of the intellect; 
the oblivion of every social and religious obligation; the extinc- 
tion of the love of honor in the human breast; and the annihila- 
tion ot every high and holy feeling of the soul, which elevates 
man above the brutes that perish, and allies him to God! Who is 
not, then, ready to exclaim, that the mere use of this poison, is of 
itself, a crime? A crime, however, which sinks into insignifi- 
cance when compared with that of making and vending it for the 
destruction of others — A crime that whitens into innocence whea 
contrasted with that of creating and pouring upon mankind this 
desolating stream of moral death, this cataract of liquid tire, to 
blast the rising glories of our country, and desola e the land. 
Time was when these results were either unthought of or un- 
known; when the making and vending of this now well known 
cause of disease and death, of crime and wretchedness, was either 
sustained by the voice of public opinion, or indulged without re- 
probation. But, sir, light has come upon us. In that light a new 
law has revealed itself. It is founded in moral justice, and is 
eternal. It is no longer unpublished or unknown to the world. It 
has been written, as it were, by the finger of God. in glaring capi- 
tals of living light, in characters of unutterable brightness up u 
the margin of the heavens. All nations have read, and are pre- 
paring to obey it. It forbids man, under the penalty of its eternal 
ma ediction— it forbids him to deal in this poison. It forbids him 
to scatter it like "firebrands, arrows and death," among the chil- 
dren of his race. No one can longer plead ignorance of its man- 
dates, or of its penalties No one can longer deny, that from 
this source, (the manufacture and traffic ot this destructive fluid) 
flows a train of evils, which embody every variety of human 
crime and human misery; which convert the blessings of heaven 
into curses, and those of life into the tortures of disease — the 
madness of despair — the premature agonies of temporal and eter- 
nal death. Without this agency, all these vast and complicated 
evils would cease to exist. The individual, therefore, who manu- 
factures or traffics in this poison, knowing and reflecting upon 
the wide-spread ruin and desolation which result from his agency 



£1 



im increasing its consumption, is. in the eye of Heaven, responsi- 
ble for all, and richly merits the disfavor and reprobation of his 
country Where, in the eye of eternai ju-tice. is 'he difference 
between him who strikes the blow of death, and him who know- 
in. !y maddens the brain, and tempts and fire- the soul, to strike it? 
\V ere is the difference between him who b\ the sa'e and dis- 
semination of this subtle poison, causes four fifths of the pauper- 
ism, crime, sickness, wretchedness, insanity and death, h>ch 
afflict the world ; and him who does it bv the manufacture and 
universal diffusion of •* miasmatic cholera" if vou please, or by 
the administration of other poisons? What matters it to the 
widowed wife and wretched orphan, whether you consign the hus- 
bai'd and father to a premature grave by the midnight dagger, or 
by the lingering tortures of the drunkard's death? The differ- 
ence is only in the form: In The form did I say? I correct myself. 
The enormity of guilt rests with a heavier weight upon the head 
of the death-dealing grocer. In the first case, the destroyer in- 
iiets upon the suffering survivor, a bereavement unembirtered 
with shame, and unstained by dishonor. While in the hitter he 
superadds to the crime of murder, and to the destitution and lone- 
liness of orphanage and widowhood the wretched inheritance^ 
poverty and disgrace. I repeat, therefore that it is now too late 
to deny either the criminality of this traffic, or the magnitude of 
the evils which result from it i'hev are seen every where: Cast 
your eyes over the broad and boundless map of moral desolation 
which these agents of ruin have spiead over the nations and then 
tell me if we are not called upon to express our reprobation is 
terms much severer than in those of the resolution before y >u, 
upon the causes of these evils? I speak not merely of their effect 
upon civil liberty, or upon the political and commercial prosperity 
of the country. I speak not of then influence upon the cnaiac- 
ter of nations, or upon the stability of governments. I speak not 
of the immense sacrifices of property — or the more than 120,0K)j* 
(MX) of dollars, which are annually expended in the United States, 
in the consumption of these poison; )rof the % 1 00,0 iu> .«, worth 
of nine, of which they annually rob their victims. I speak not of 
those stupendous public works and mo uments of art, to the erec- 
tion of which these accumulated sums might be annually applied; 
Bor of the security, prosperity and glory which they would u,ive 
to the country. I speak not of the gallows-chains, the gibbe r s, 
the alms houses, the dungeons, and the peniteutiarie-, to wh.se 
ravening heights and hungry walls, the makers and \euders of 
this poison are but the recruiting sergeants. I speak not now of 
fields turned to waste — of homes deserted — of hearths desolate 
— of happiness forever blasted, and hopes forever crushed beneath 
file withering tread of this fell destroyer. Nor wll time permit 
me to point yoa even for a moment, to those scenes of grovelling 



m 

dissipation, of frantic riot, of desperate revenge, and of brutal 
abandonment, from which the once kind husband and the father is 
sent home, transformed into an infuriated demon, to his trembling 
wife and famished children, the object alike of terror, of shame, 
and of heart rending commiseration. I cannot speak of those truly 
tragical results of this inhuman traffic; of those scenes of unut- 
terable wretchedness and agony of soul, over which my heart has 
often bled, even in the far off peaceful wilds of the west; of those 
scenes, in which I myself have seen this demon of destruction 
rising on his pedestal of broken hearts and blasted hopes, and, 
intent on gain, filling the very air with moral pestilence, blasting 
©very noble and manly feeling of the human heart, and pouring 
from his poisoned chalice his fiery streams of agony and despair into 
the once happy and cherished circle of domestic peace and love. 
These, sir, are the scenes in which the effects of this most inex- 
cusable traffic in ardent spirits are exhibited: these the scenes, 
where cruel and cold hearted avarice, for the sake of a few paltry 
sixpences, palsies every healthful pulse of life, and sharpens eve- 
ry pang of death— where the gnm master of the sacrifice himself, 
coming forth from his dark Aceldama of human blood, strikes 
down every hope that can cheer, and wrings every fibre that can 
fee!, before he gives the final blow of grace that sends the suffer- 
ing victim to eternity 

But, I forbear to expatiate. In conclusion, let me only ask, can 
that traffic be justified by an enlightened and virtuous people, 
W'rich thus alone holds out the chief temptation to intempe ance. 
and strews the Ian. 1 with *• beggars, and widows, and orphans, and 
©rimes" — which breaks up the foundations of social happiness, con- 
signs millions prematurely to their graves, and fills the world with 
wailings, lamentations, and woe? I answer, no, sir. Policy. morality, 
patriotism, religion, condemn it The omnipotence ot pubic opi- 
nion will put it down. A mighty and glorious, revolution, thank 
God, is in triumphant progress" A light, brighter than that of the 
sun at noon day, has burst upon us. All now see and admit, that 
if there were no makers or venders of this poison, there would he, 
there could he, no drunkards; and that from the moment of their 
abandonment of this horrid traffic, a second golden age wouid 
dawn upon the world, and the bright earth would smile and bloom 
again in primeval happiness. and peace 

Let us then lay the axe at the root of the tree — at the root of 
Ihis great " Eohan Upas" of moral death and social ruin. Let 
us assail its gian( trunk, now that we have lopped its branches. 
Let us invoke that wretched commerce which is conducted beneath 
its deadly shade,toabatidon it^ pursuit and to withhold its liquid fires 
from the execution of their threatened d vastation upon the bnght- 
est promises and hopes ot man. Let us invoke <he dealer in that 
commerce, hj every bond of social duty — by his detestation «jf 



28 

crime — by his love of virtue — by his devotion to the public peace— > 
fey hi* sympathy for *he wretched — bv the funeral knell of his 
victims— by ihe bitter tears of the widow — by the heart-breaking 
cries of shelterless and degraded orphanage — and by everv tie 
that binds the good man to his country, to close forever the flood- 
gates of this all devouring deluge, and to unite with us in drying 
up this great source of individual crime and national degradation. 
As Americans, our condition is peculiar and responsible. In 
spite of the power of prejudice and the most formidable opposition, 
we have already shaken the bloated monster's throne to it> centre, 
and planted a new star of bright and cheering hope upon the dark- 
ness of the worid's moral skj . Already has it flashed across the 
ocean, and been hailed by the wise and good of all civilized na- 
tions, as the light of a new and glorious day. They have caught 
the example and are now gloriously engaged in its imitation. 
Their eyes are fixed upon us, and their gaze is equally incessant and 
intense. Let us not mock it with disappointment. Let our step be 
onward! Let us take counsel and gather strength from the respon- 
sibilities we have assumed. And, as a high and perpetual motive 
to unrelaxed exertion, let it never be forgotten, that the glory of 
having projected and thus far successfully prosecuted this great 
moral revolution belongs exclusively to our own beloved country. 
Let us look steadily forward, and press on firmly to its final con- 
summation; and as we have led the van in the glorious career of 
civil liberty and political emancipation, let us never, never relin- 
quish the high purpose of our association, until this lust and great- 
est and deadliest enemy of social virtue, of enlightened freedom, 
and of human happiness, shall have been utterly demolished and 
extirpated from our borders. 

The Hon. George R. Briggs, Member of Congress, from 
Massachusetts, next rose and addressed the meeting in support 
•f the following resolution. 

Resolved, That total abstinence from the use of ardent 
spirit, as a drink, is the only security to individuals 
against its ruinons consequences, and gives the only sure 
pledge of the ultimate success of the cause of tempe- 
rance. 

Mr. Chairman — 

The resolution which I have been requested to present fpf 
the consideration of this meeting, avows the principle of total 
abstinence. It means precisely what it avows The friends 
©f temperance consider that principle as the hinge on whicH 
fhis great eause must turn. They believe, as the re^oioticw 



24 

declares, that the safety of individuals and the suecesf of the 

06 ss depend upon it. It is therefore of great moment that 
we should cone to a ri^ht decision upon this point. 

Ethical writers tell us, that when a proposition is present- 
ed, upon which we are to act, the one side of which is doubt- 
Jul, and the other certain, it is our duty to take the certaii 
side. Apply this plain and safe rule of moral action to the 
case before us. Is the use of* ardent spirit as a drink safe ? — 
Ha> not its use brought ruin upon thousands, and thousands of 
individuals, and been productive of great and multiplied pub- 
lic eviis— as its tendency is to produce such disastrous conse- 
quences, and as such consequences have followed, it is very 
clear that it cannot be used with safety. Will any pretend 
thai there is n jt perfect security against all such consequences 
individual and public, in entire abstinence? No man can be 
found so hardy as to maintain such an absurdity. If then we 
admit the rue of action, what I have stated to be correct, the 
argument is short, simple, and conclusive, and proves that in- 
dividuals ought not to use ardent spirit as a drink. 

It is temperate drinking that imperceptibly leads to excess, 
and brings ou all the evil fruits of that excess. 

Fashion, habit, custom, and social intercourse, lead on the 
unsuspecti >g drinker, until a confirmed appetite, unconsciously 
contracted, mikes him a drunkard. He sees not his danger 
until he h is advanced so far, that he loses the power to re- 
turn — our whole country is filled with instances which bear 
testimony to the melancholy truth of this remark. Private 
worth, biandness of manners — strength of intellect — elevation 
ef character, and all the high and endearing leiations of ufe, 
bave been found wholly insufficient to arrest habits thus form- 
ed, an i controul an appetite thu> confirmed. 

The kind remonstrances of friends are treated with con- 
tempt, and rejected with disdain. If any man who hears me 
is in the habitual use of this poisonous substance, and yet 
flatters himself* that he is in no danger, let him subject himself 
to an experiment that will show him the truth. Let him re- 
so've to pass by the season and the occasion when he usually 
takes his beverage, and if he finds that his stomach reminds 
him of the time to receive its accustomed supply, and loudly 
talis for the dram, depend upon it he is in most imminent dan* 
ger. If he hesitates on the course which he ought to adopt, 
his situation is most critical — *f he permits the cravings of a 
morbid appetite to ma&ter his resistance te its demands —he i£ 



25 

undone. No matter who he is, or what he is, if this is his 
condition he will soon be a ruined drunkard. 

Sir. the truth is, intemperance advances upon its victim with 
the insidiousness of the serpent — it grapples him with the 
strength of a giant — it holds him with the remorseless cruelty 
of a demon — all attempts to extricate himself from its power 
is hopeless — he yields to a dominion which he cannot resist, 
and sinks into ruin. 

Temperate drinking sets the drunkard out in his career 
but a fixed resolution of abstinence closes the gate which 
opens to the dark avenue of intemperance, and bolts it with 
bars of iron — with all hi> propensities and appetites subjected 
to his controul, the temperate man moves on in the path of 
safety and usefulness. 

The learned Baily in writing upon this subject urges the 
propriety and necessity of a resolute determination to abstain 
entirely from intoxicating liquors — 

" For," says he, -'indefinite resolutions yield to extraordina- 
ry occurrences, and extraordinary occurrences are continually 
recurring." 

It may be asked do you pretend that every man who drinks 
ardent spirit becomes a drunkard ? By no means. But I 
ask, did the Cholera, which passed over the cities of this coun- 
try, like the destroying angel, kill every person upon whom it 
Seized? No. Only about one in three of all those who groan- 
ed under its attack fell victims to its power. Have you ever 
known an instance, sir, when all the men on board a ship of 
war have been swept away in the most bloody battle ever 
fought on the heaving billows? But because all were not killed, 
was the quarter deck a place of safety? 

Were all that splendid company assembled in the Richmond 
Theatre when it took nr^ a few years ago, consumed in its 
flames?' No, sir; only about seventy of that great assembly 
who, unconciousof dai.ger one moment before the scenery was 
wrapped in flames, among whom were embraced the talent, the 
pride, and the beauty of that city and of the commonwealth, 
peiished in the conflagration. 

Yet will any one have the madness to say that that scene of 
confusion, horror, and death was a place of safety? 

It has been ascertained that, in 1828, one in forty of our 
whole population wero drunkards, and that more than thirty 
thousand persons were annually hurried to the grave by the 
Use of intoxicating liquors. 

Another branch of the resolution declares that the final sac- 
4 



16 



cess of the tem'perance cause depends upon the uncompromising 
observance of the principle of toati abstinence. 

If indivduals cannot escape from the consequences of intem- 
perance, without the adoption of this principle, it would seen to 
follow of course that communities, which arebutthe aggregates 
of individuals, will he involved in t,he evils of a departure from it. 
The past experience of our country is decisive on this ques- 
tion. 

The use of alcohol as a drink on occasions and in quantities 
judged to be necessary and proper by those who drank it, has 
filled our land with poverty and crime, with tears and sor- 
rows. 

In 1828,, there were, in these United States, four hundred 
thousand intemperate persons. This army of drunkards were 
once sober men. The people of this country have been in 
the habit of consuming sixty millions gallons of ardent spirit a 
year — the cost of which was more than thiry millions of dol- 
lars. It has filled our goals and penitentaries with convicts, 
and our poor houses with tenants. 

It has dug the grave of thousands and made that sacred abode 
of repose and quiet, the early prison house of genius, the re- 
ceptacle of drunkards, and the place of buried hopes. 

The same causes will continue to produce the same effects, as 
certain as night succeeds the setting sun. The custom which 
brought upon our country the repro ichful epithet of a nation of 
drunkards, came over the mass of our population, as the habit 
of inebriation does over an individual, by an insidious, imper- 
ceptible, and fatal process. 

Mr. Chairman, who will undertake to fix the boundary be- 
tween temperance and intemperance? 

How often, how much, and for what purposes may a man 
drink, and yet be temperate? The moderate drinker takes it 
only when he t kinks he needs it. The drunkard does the 
same. The strength of the appdite, the amount required, and 
the ability to stand under it, vary with different individuals. 
All are governed by the same influence, and ail tend to the 
same results. The man who contends with this fell destroyer, 
may have a strong constitution and a vigorous intellect, but in 
the end his intellectual and physical powers must surrender to 
the giant adversary. The defeat is full of shame and disgrace. 
But he falls not alone. The pestilence of his example reaches 
far around him. The desolation which he brings upon himself 
overwhelms all with whom he may stand connected. 

The example of moderate drinking, by men of respecta 



|7 

bility, exerts a most pernicious and dangerous influence upojj 
all around them. One temperate drinker noes more harm to 
the cause of temperance than ten drunkards. The young and 
unwary are enticed and lured by his example to embark in 
the dangerous experiment, whilst the habitually intemperate 
are countenanced by his practice, and fatally hastened on in 
their downward course— whilst he boasts of safety, he dreams 
not that the ruined drunkard who staggers beiore him, but yes- 
terday occupied the same pkice where lie now stands, and held 
the same cci fider t language which he now holds. To-morrow 
he may be the jest and the scorn of some other temperate 
drinker. 

The entire inutility of all former efforts to arrest the progress 
of this vice shows conclusively that the principle for which 
we cor tend, is the only one from which success can be ex- 
pected. 

Temperance societies organized and sustained by great and 
good men uniting their endeavors to confine the use of ar- 
dent spirit within the limits of moderation and propriety, ex- 
isted for many years before the adoption of the present plan, 
without arresting in the slightest degree the onward progress 
cf that burnit g flood which was ■sweeping over our country 
and carr) ing away its population. 

The wonderful advancement of the cause of total absti- 
nence, demonstrates the wisdom of the principle and holds 
©Ut the most cheering prospects to its friends. 

The fruits of their efforts have not only been co-extensive 
with the limits of our own vast country, but they have reached 
across the Atlantic, and moved to emulation the people of the 
old world. 

The great and the philanthiopic have viewed with admira- 
tion the movements of the friends of temperance in these U. 
States. European monarchs have sought, through their offi- 
cial representatives in this country, to be informed of the means 
used to produce these happy and valuable results. 

Sir, the cause of -temperance is indeed a great cause. In its 
'success is involved the best interests of man. It will exert an 
influence over his destiny in two worlds. It has called up the 
attention of the people of this whole country, and their per- 
severing efforts to carry it on, evinces the great importance 
whkh they attach to it It was one of those mighty topics 
which the eloquent Apostle of the. Gentiles discussed before 
a Roman governor with such startling effect, that it shook the 
strong nerves of that proud and voluptuoas heathen: " far whffe 



28 



he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to 
come, * elix trembled." 

To the young men of America this subject addresses itself 
with peculiar force. Upon them rest the. hopes, and upon 
them will soon devolve the burdens and the honors of their 
country. Every thing which can give vigour to intellect, 
dignity to character, and elevation to morals, it becomes them 
to pursue with the ardor of love and the devotion of patriotism. 
They are to imitate the virtues and avoid the errors of those 
who have gone before them. 

If they will take a bold and decided stand against this fear- 
full vice which has brought reproach upon their country and 
laid low many of her proudest and most gifted sons, they can 
exterminate the evil, and change the habit and custom of the 
age in which they live. The generation of which they form 
a part will reap the honor and enjoy the happiness of complet- 
ing a triumph more glorious because more useful to mankind, 
than that which belongs to successful generals and conquering 
armies. 

Thomas Sewall, M. D. Professor of Anatomy and Physiology 
in the Columbian College, Washington, D. C. then arose and 
said: 

I rejoice, Mr. President, that the princ'ple of total abstinence 
has been brought forward upon this occasion, and has been so 
successfully sustained by the gentleman who has just taken his 
seat; for I am convinced that nothing short of the practical re- 
cognition of this principle carried into the temperance cause, 
can ever accomplish the great object in view. As a part of this 
system and in support of this principle, I beg leave to otfer the 
following resolution. 

Resolved, That the use of ardent spirit tends to 
produce disease and premature death; and that there is 
no case in which it is indispensable, even as a medicine, 
and in which there may not be an adequate substitute. 

This resolution, Mr. President, contains two points. The first 
is, that the use of ardent spirit induces disease and premature 
death. 

There are few subjects in medicine better understood and 
none the consideration of which brings us to more satisfactory 
though painful results, than that of the effect of ardent spirit 
upon the physical constitution of man. But the di>cu*sion of 
this part of the subject is unsuited to this place and occasion. — 



m 

Besides, the proposition is so fully sustained by the accumulated 
fact* of more than two centuries, as to receive the universal assent 
of intelligent men. In our own day and country and within our 
own observation, we have facts which are overwhelming; upon this 
subject. He who will cast his eyes around, must see that intem- 
perance, like a withering pestilence, has passed over our land, 
carrying with it physical as well as moral desolation. It has 
invaded all ranks of our citizens, and swept away multitudes of 
every cla^s. All ajres and constitutions have sunk under its 
subduing power. There is no disease it has not induced, no 
predisposition to disease it has not excited into action. It has 
seized upon every 1 issue of the body, invaded every organ, de- 
ranged every function and prostrated every power. It has filled 
our grave yards with the old, middle aged and young. It is 
computed by high medical authority, that one-third of all the 
deaths among our male population between the ages of twenty 
and fifty, have been occasioned by strong drink — and this from 
that portion of the community which under the influence of tem- 
perance, would have been the light, the strength and glory of our 
country. 

But, Mr. President, we are not limited to the consideration of 
those facts, which ihrough a series of years have accumulated, 
and which have ceased to shock us because they have ceased to 
be novel. That appalling scourge the epidemic Cholera, which 
within a few years has spread consternation and terror over the 
continents of Asia and Europe, and which at length has reached 
our own shores, and has caused the voice of wailing to be heard 
in our streets, presents a new, startling and decisive fact, from 
which it become^ us and all the nations to learn wisdom. Other 
M \rningsand other teachers we have too long disregarded. Let 
\u beware how we turn a deaf ear to that note of alarm which 
this special messenger has sounded, and which has thrilled through 

every heart, and reached to the utmost habitation of the land. 

Over whatever region this disease has passed, it has singled nut 
the intemperate for its victims in a marked and extraordinary 
manner. If in some instances the sober and temperate have been 
borne off in the common ruin, it has seldom been except where 
some powerful, predisposing or exciting cause overwhelmed the 
system-. In the city of Albany, of three hundred and thirty-six, 
who fell victims to the disease, in the course of a few weeks, only 
five were temperate — temperate in the sense in which the gentle- 
man who has preceded me, has used the term, the only sense 
in which it can be used with propriety, to express total abstinence 
from the use of ardent spirit. And of the five thousand members 
of the temperance societies of that city, there were but two that 
died, in the population generally, about one in fifty were cut 
Mown, while ©* the members ©f the temperance societies there was 



St 

fcut one in twenty-five hundred. But these are not solitary facts^ 
in this city and wherever else the disease has swept over the 
country, its march has been distinguished by the same character- 
istic circumstances. 

Tf then, Sir, we had no other motive for pressing forward in the 
vast enterprize which has called us together this evening, than 
the single one of saving our fellow-citizens from, the returning 
ravages of this fearful pestilence, this alone, it would seem, should 
be sufficient to reach every heart and to reuse the slumbering en- 
ergies of the nation. 

The second position asserted by the resolution is, that there is 
no case in which ardent spirit is indispensable, even as a medi- 
cine, and in which there may not be an adequate substitute 

The time has been, Mr. President, when this proposition would 
have been regarded as an unfounded assumption. Such has been 
the influence of education and habit over the minds of men, thai 
ardent spirit has long been regarded as the universal medicinal 
restorative, the great panacea, and consequently it has been the 
constant companion of the sick and the chief solace of the invalid $ 
and the physician might as easily have laid aside all other articles 
of the materia medica, as to have dispensed with the alcoholic 
mixtures; But the light of modern science and the power of moral 
influence, is beginning to dissipate the clouds which have long 
hovered over us, and the opinion of the medical profession is fast 
settling down upon the practicability and propriety ol wholly dis- 
pensing with the medical use of this article. 

Several of the most distinguished physicians of our country 
have expelled it from their practice, and hundreds of others who 
have had occasion to weep over the consequences of prescribing it 
as a medicine, are waking up to a sense of their responsibility and 
duty. 

By the light of modern chemistry, we see that many of those 
pharmaceutic preparations which were once thought to require 
the aid of alcohol, are now prepared with equal efficacy without 
it. And the day^ I am persuaded sir, is not distant when, by 
universal consent, ardent spirit, in every form, shall be cast out 
from the sick room as its last lurking place, its final strong hold, 
and this without impairing the powers of the healing art, or limit- 
ing its resources. 

When this is effected, sir. and not till then, w ill the cause of uni- 
versal temperance have gained a full triumph. 

AVhen the light of that day arises, what a soothing spectacle will 
it spread out to the moral eye. All tears will not yet be wiped 
away, and death shall still pass upon all men, but the diseases of 
intemperance, the bloated form, the parali/ed muscle, the trem- 
bling limb, the enfeebled mind, the wasted and seared affections; 
these forms of disease and suffering will have disappeared. No 



31 

longer shall our streets be thronged by the helpless and decrepped. 
No longer, shall our hospitals, infirma-ies, ami alms houses be 
tilled by those wretched, exhausted beings who have been cast 
out of the pale of social relations. No longer shall the children 
and youth bear about the marks of parental disease and degra- 
dation. 

Who can estimate aright the whole length and breadth of this 
great amelioration of the condition of man? The science of Jen- 
ner banished one disease only, and his name is justly immortali/.ed. 
A discovery of Davy disarmed the deadly gasses of the mines of 
their power of danger, and the world justly ranks this among 
the most splendid achievments of philosophy. But here, not one 
disease alone, not one source of occcasional danger to a single 
small class of men is removed — a whole fountain of evil, immiti- 
gable, universal, is sealed up— a whole class of diseases of the 
body, mind, and moral constitution, are extirpated forever. How 
much new industry will this great result give back to the enter- 
prizes of society. How much now banished happiness will it 
restore to the social circle. How many new worshippers will it 
call around the altar of God. With how much new intelligence 
and energy will it nerve the arm ot labor and guide the exertions 
of mind— and what a fertilizing flood of morality, enjoyment, 
wealth, and honor will it cause to flow out upon the face of the 
whole land. Happy is he who shall live to see these things! 
Happier still who not seeing them, shall so labor in his day and 
generation in this glorious cause, as by the blessing of God, to 
work out their certain and speedy fulfilment. 

The Hon. Lewis Condict, member of Congress from New 
Jersey, then offered the following resolution: 

Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that the lib- 
erties and welfare of the nation are intimately and in- 
dissolnbly connected with the morals and virtue of the 
people. And that, in the enactment of laws for the 
common benefit, it is equally the duty of the Legislative 
body to guard and preserve the public morals from cor- 
ruption, as to advance the pecuniary interest, or to main- 
tain the civil rights and freedom of the community. 

Mr. Condict then said, it has been our lot, Mr. Chairman, 
to live in an age when the nations of Europe, viewing the 
moral desolation which, for a time, pervaded every section of 
our own beloved country, portending destruction to all that is 
dear to the heart of man, pronounced us to be, " a nation of 



drunkards" — *f a nation of drunkards!" It was seen that we 
had distanced the old world in this race of profligacy, and for 
half a century, perhaps had stood unrivalled. Whilst the poor 
of the old world have been famishing for bread, and to sustain 
life would beg for the ''crumbs from the rich men's tables," 
here the ingenuity of man has been taxed for years to devise the 
most speedy and efficient method of converting our corn and 
our wheat, not into the loaf which feeds and strengthens the 
hand of labor, but into that deadly poison which palsies every 
muscle, debases the soul of man, and effaces from it the image 
of the Deity. 

Nor has this process been limited to our bread stuffs. The 
richest bounties of Providence, the delicate dainties of our 
tables, our most delicious fruits and vegetables, are perverted 
from <heir original design, to subserve this perverted appetite. 
The smoKe of the still was seen in every neighborhood — the 
poison found its way to every family — the cup was carried to 
every lip. The father enticed the son, and the elder brother 
the younger, until our title to this rare distinction became un- 
questioned. 

The evils which have resulted — such as the destruction of 
morals, the increase of crime, the ruin of families, the degra- 
dation and misery of thousands, I cannot now notice. Its bitter 
fruits have' been seen and felt and tasted in every corner of 
our land. It has filled our jails with debtors, our penitentiaries 
Jvith criminals, our hospitals with loathsome diseases, our poor 
houses with wretched tenants, our whole land with widows 
and orphans, and our grave yards with human bodies. 

These things, Mr. Chairman, we have seen and known. 
And blessed be God, we have also lived to see a brighter day. 
Within the space of a few years, we have seen a revolution ac- 
complished in our moral world, as astonishing and as unexpect- 
ed, as that political revolution by which we have been admitted 
into the family of nations. We have seen this scourge arrest- 
ed, this mighty flood turned back, its proud wave stayed, by 
means, which, to all human judgment, seemed inadequate. A 
few enlightened philanthropists began this work of reform, 
by an appeal to the sober senses and enlightened judgment of 
the community, and acting on the principle ol " total absti- 
nence" have so commended themselves and their cause to the 
understanding of men, as, in a good measure, to banish the vice 
of drunkenness from our borders. 

I will not stop to enquire how this revolution has been ef- 
fected. We are satisfied that the fact is so, and we rejoice i*> 



as 

it. In the events of Providence, the minds of men had been 
gradually preparing and ripening for this moral reform ;, and 
no sooner had its star risen in the East, than its rays were seen 
and reflected to every quarter of our horizon. Its influence 
has spread from place to place, and from heart to heart, until, 
as I believe, there is scarcely a State in our Union, and, as I 
hope, scarcely a county in a State, in which kindred associations 
do not exist — all enlisted in the same cause — under the same 
glorious banner and motto — '• total abstinence." 

And it is under this same benign influence, as I hope, Mr. 
Chairman, that we assemble here this evening in this our Hail of 
the National Legislature. And from this place, as I trust, an 
influence will go forth to the nation, which shall be felt for 
good in every district throughout our borders, promotive of the 
highest happiness and welfare of all classes of the people. Let 
us not limit our views to the mansions of wealth and luxury. 
Let us look into the humble cottage — into the abodes of want, 
where hunger and nakedness are felt; where riot and violence 
have often driven the mother and her infant into the street 
through the midnight storm, to seek a shelter from that storm 
which rages in her own dwelling. Let us, by mild persuasives, 
banish the bottle from this roof, and the smile of love will 
light up the countenance of the mother, and joy and gladness 
cheer her heart. 

Mr. Chairman, we have seen almost all classes of men en- 
gaged in this delightful woik. The divine, the counsellor, the 
physician, the merchant, the planter, the mechanic, each con- 
tributing his mite. 

It has occurred to me, and no doubt to others, that there is 
one class, who, as yet, have been little more than lookers-on. 
This class is the legislators of our country ! Being one of the 
body, I ask myself and my associates, what have we done offi- 
cially, either in our enactments or otherwise, which is calcu- 
lated to aid and forward this good work? Perhaps this question 
may be returned to me — what can be done by legislators to 
advance or promote so desirable an object? 

I answer, much may be done, in various modes. 

First: By example An association of members of the Na- 
tional Legislature, publicly pledged to each other, and teaching 
by example, the doctrine of total abstinence from intoxicating 
drinks whilst here, carrying home into their respective districts 
this influence — preaching practically among the people this 
living and active precept of total abstinence, will exert an in- 
fluence mere extensive and more active than has yet been 

5 



34 



known. Can it be doubled? No, no! Every heart and every 
tongue will assent. Such an association here, in the heart of 
the nation, embracing many members of each House — (Why 
not also the Cabinet and other officers of Government, includ- 
ing also those of the Army and Navy?) Such an association, I 
say , will strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of a 
thousand co-operators throughout the land. 

In the second place: May not positive legislation do some- 
thing to check this vice? What member of this or of the 
State Legislatures is there who does not see and know the ne- 
cessity of better regulations in our houses of public entertain- 
ment? How many of them are mere tippling shops — large 
establishments where gamblers and drunkards are manufac- 
tured by legions, to be let loose on society? Is not the law rad- 
ically defective, both in its enactments and its administration, 
which licenses such pest-houses? In theory they are designed 
for the accommodation of the traveller. Wearied by his jour- 
ney, he will shun them, if possible, as he would a thunder 
storm. Would not the public welfare be promoted, by taxing 
them out of existence? 

In the third place: Might not *he hand of legislation be laid 
somewhat heavily upon intoxicating liquors? x\re they not 
fair subjects and objects of taxation, whether for revenue or 
for morals? Would not ihe heart of many a poor widow re- 
joice, if the tax, which, by your laws, she now pays upon her 
molasses and tea, could be transferred to that poison which de- 
stroyed her husband, and has often sent her and her orphans 
supperles* to bed? Such . legislation would gladden many a 
heavy heart and light up many smiles, where tears only are 
seen. 

Suppose the revenue from this source were discreetly applied, 
under State regulations, to the establishment of i'ree schools for 
twenty -five years, what a change might we not expect in the 
moral condition of the country? How many youth would it 
not rescue from that pit of destruction, which the vices and fol- 
lies of their fathers have prepared. What an accession of virtue, 
and talent, and industry would it not bring forth, for the de- 
fence and ornament of our land, which otherwise must be 
buried in obscurity or enlisted among the votaries of vice? 
What security would it not afford for perpetuating tbe blessings 
and benefits of free government? 

Who can trace the progress or define the limits of the moral 
desolation which has stalked abroad through our land with 
giant step? AH other sources of crime are but the "small 



35 



dust of the balance, " " a drop in the bucket," compared with 
this vast ocean of human misery which no mind can fathom — 
deluding our country with crime, which no legislation "an 
arrest or control, unless by laying the axe to the root of the 
tree. 

To the mind of the philanthropist, the patriot, the states- 
man, the christian, no fairer subject for taxation can be pre- 
sented. And may we not indulge the hope, that the statesmen of 
our country, who ought to be as well the conservators of the 
public morals, asof the public purse, to secure the country from 
this overwhelming scourge, will unite their efforts to tax the 
monster out of our borders? May we not hope, that the time is 
not very distant, when the bottle and bowl shall make some 
amends to society, by endowing schools and collea.es to train, 
for virtue and religion, the children whose fathers they have 
murdered, and thus blot from our history the foul page which 
exhibits us to the world as a Nation of Drunkards? 

This would, indeed, be a system of " internal improve- 
ment" of more intrinsic value to the country, than all the 
canals and rail roads which have been projected. And in such 
a system, I would be more ambitious to be an humble instru- 
ment, than to be the reputed founder and projector of all the 
canals which have been contemplated between the Atlantic and 
the Mississippi. 

The following resolution was to have been presented by the 
Hon. H. A. S- Dearborn, member of Congress From Massachu- 
setts, but he was prevented by sickne&s from attending the meet- 
ing. 

Resolved, That the abolition of the use of ardent 
spirit throughout the Army, has been highly salutary; 
and that its abolition throughout the Navy, while it 
would strengthen the arm of national defence, would 
also elevate the character and increase the respectability 
and happiness of that interesting and important class of 
our citizens. 

The following resolution was then moved by the Hon. Andrew 
Stewart, member of Congress from Pennsylvania: 

Kesolved, That the adoption of the principle of ab- 
stinence from the use of ardent spirit, by superinten- 
dants of pubiic works, proprietors of rail mads, steam- 
boats, stages, <fee. with regard to all in their employ- 



36 



naent, would increase the value of their services, as 
well as the comfort and safetv of the community. 

Mr. Stewart said the purpose of this resolution was sufficient- 
ly obvious — it was to connect the moral with the physical im- 
provement of cur country; and however highly important the lat- 
ter might be deemed, the former was undoubtedly much more so. 

It had been his intention, Mr. S said, to have accompanied the 
introduction of this resolution with some remarks, but he felt ad- 
monished by the lateness of the hour, as well as by the state of 
bis health, to change his? purpose; besides, even under the most fa- 
vorable circumstances, he could not hope to be able to add any 
tiling to the gratification which the meeting had evidently expe- 
rienced during the eloquent and spirited address from the chair, 
and from the remarks of other gentlemen who had already discuss- 
ed the subject with so much ability and eloquence. 

Since he was up, however, he would avail himself of the oppor- 
tunity of stating a fact that could not fail to be gratifying to all. — 
Recent intelligence from the west, he said, brought information 
on this subject of the most grateful and cheering character. The 
cause of temperance, it appeared, hart there received a new and 
powerful impulse; its progress was onward and triumphant; it had 
outstripped the anticipations of its most ardent and sanguine 
faiends. Societies were forming in every village, town, and 
neighborhood; ignorance and vice were Qvery where fleeing before 
the advance of light and virtue, and the prospect was every day 
becoming stronger and brighter, that this fell monster Intem- 
perance would soon be exterminated from the land — that this 
fruitful source of misery and woe — this great fountain of poverty, 
wretchedness and crime, would soon be forever dried up and de- 
stroyed; when it would become a matter of wonder and astonish- 
ment to all that this barbarous, debasing and brutalizing practice 
bad been so long tolerated in this free, enlightened, and happy 
land. 

The Hon. William Wilkins, member of the United States 
Senate from Pennsylvania, then submitted the following resolu- 
tion; 

Resolved, That the use of ardent spirits and the un- 
restrained traffic in them, dm ctly lead to the introduc- 
tion amongst us, of crimes and vice in various forms, 
and to the overthrow of that purity and virtue of the 
people upon which depend the permanence of our free 
institutions, and, therefore, ought to be discouraged and 
resisted by every friend of civil and religious liberty 
throughout the world. 



37 



In support of the above resolution, the Honorable Senator re- 
tnaiked that, for any man f o speak on (lie evils of intemperance, 
was, in his view, the greatest of all superfluities They were 
eviis which were seen and read of all men. Nobody needed to 
be convinced- of them; all saw them; all acknowledged them. 
But the y;reat question was, what is the remedy? Mere he des- 
canted with great perspicuity, elegance, and power upon total 
abstinence from the use of all intoxicating drinks, as the only re- 
ined v. and said, that if he had not always acted strictly on that 
plan, (as nothing had ever passed his lips but the pure beverage 
which God had made for the drink of man,) instead of now having 
the honor of representing in Congress the gre.it and powerful 
State of Pennsylvania, an honor of which he might j j s t i v be 
proud, he mig'U have been a loathsome, degraded, and miserable 
drunkard, wallowing in the gutter, and more filthy even than the 
gutter in which he wallowed. He also spoke in the strongest 
term* of the great and extensive benefits which had resulted from 
the operations of temperance societies; said that he belonged to 
one himself, <ind in an eloquent and impressive manner, he urged 
ad t j >in th m; and pourtrayed, in glowing colors, the benefits 
which, from such a course, would result to our country and the 
world. 

The honorable John Reed, member of Congress from 
Massachusetts, presented the following resolution : 

Resolved, That as a mea is of universal success, the 
friends of temperance are bound to redouble their ef- 
forts by the agency of the press, and by all other practi- 
cable means, to enlighten the understandings of their 
fellow men, and awaken their attention to this great and 
important cause. 

In support of this resolution Mr. Reed observed — 

Mr. Chairman: — By the permission of this meeting, I 
will offer some brief remarks, in support of the resolution I 
have presented for their consideration. 

Great improvements in the character and condition of man, 
can be made only by the efforts of men united. When we are 
called upon to unite for the purpose of making such improve- 
ments, we naturally enquire, are they practicable? And if 
practicable, is it expedient for us to engage in the work ? In 
the origin of temperance societies in Massachusetts, these -.nd 
many other questions were o ten propounded. Many declined 
to engage in a cause which appeared surrounded with so many 
and so great difficulties, and which, in their estimation, promis- 



38 

eel so little success. But it was undertaken by those, who 
had hope and iaith in its success. Though they were consider- 
ed by some as enthusiasts, they were in truth influenced by a 
high principle of duty, which required them to use their best 
efforts, if possible, to preserve their fellow men from inevita- 
ble destruction. Their efforts have proved, in a great mea- 
sure, successful; and great good has resulted from the under- 
taking. 

Mr. Chairman : I had the honor, and I esteem it no small 
honor, to have been one of the earliest associates, in forming 
a Temperance Society, in the United States. I nave had op- 
portunity, for years, to witness its effects, and know by actual 
observation, its real usefulness. 

We formed a temperance society in the village in which I 
live, in the year 1816, and it has ever since continued in suc- 
cessful operation. Its beneficial effects have been obvious to 
all; and many of those who formed the society, have lived to 
realize the accomplishment of all their hopes and anticipations. 
It has more than answered the expectations of its founders.' 
Its influence has in some cases reclaimed the intemperate. The 
gentleman' who preceded me (Judge Wilkins) stated, that he 
had never known a confirmed drunkard reformed. I assure 
that gentleman such cases have occurred; they have occurred 
under my own observation, and in my own neighborhood. 
One of my nearest neighbors was for years a confirmed drunk- 
ard; but for more than twelve years last past, no man has been 
more sober and temperate. He has long been a member of 
our society, and has often, at our public meetings, given the his- 
tory of his own life, a painful duty he felt constrained to 
perform for the good of others. The situatiou of a confirmed 
drunkard is awful indeed ; but he is not without the reach of 
hope. I beseech you, give him not up in despair. I repeat, 
the society, of which I have spoken, has, in some cases, been 
instrumental in reclaiming the decidedly intempeiate. Its 
operations have led to inquiry and consideration, and have had 
no inconsiderable influence upon the state of society. It has 
induced new customs in regard to hospitality and generosity, 
in which ardent spirit has no place. It has had a powerful in- 
fluence upon the young and inexperienced, by warning them of 
danger, and preventing them from touching and tasting the 
accursed thing; and there are now many who have arrived to 
years of maturity, who have never tasted ardent spirit. Since 
the commencement of the society, a generation have grown 
up much improved by it, in character aud usefulness. 



39 

That which was once doubtful, is now settled by experience; 
and the beneficial effects of temperance societies are recorded 
in the faithful page of history. The blessings of many, who 
were ready to perish, have come upon them. The mother — 
the wife daily thanks her Heavenly Father, that by their influ- 
ence her husband, once dead in drunkenness and sin, has been 
reformed, and raised to newness of life — to love, and virtue, 
and usefulness. "He was dead and is alive, he was lost and 
is found." 

Enough has been done, to prove to the most sceptical, that 
these societies have been highly beneficial; and those who now 
refuse to join them, and give them the sanction of their name 
and influence, have not the poor apology that it is an experi- 
ment, and they are faithless 

Is the great work of temperance perfected ? Are the intem- 
perate, throughout our country, reclaimed? Do the young and 
rising generation, surrounded as they are, with so many insidi- 
ous and seductive temptations, need no warning and admoni- 
tion, to avoid the road to ruin? 

Though we speak of the great good that has already been 
effected, it is no matter of boasting — far from it; the whole sub- 
ject of intemperance, is most humiliating to the noble pride of 
man. It is mentioned to encourage others to engage in this 
arduous, but not hopeless cause. Comparatively, but lit- 
tle has yet been effected. The fair prospect of ultimate and 
universal success should stimulate us, to higher and nobler ef- 
forts. If something useful has been effected, much re- 
mains yet to be done. Intemperance has poisoned the souls 
and bo. lies of many of our unfortunate fellow men, who are 
dragging out a miserable existence. Have we discovered an 
antidote? Let compassion and love hasten to administer 
relief. 

But, sir, what I most regard, and value as most useful in this 
institution is, its power and influence in preventing evil. — Its 
influence upon the young, the thoughtless, and inexperienced — 
the rising generation. Their hearts are ingenuous, and open to 
the reception of truth. They have as yet no bad habits and 
prejudices to encounter. " They do not love darkness rather 
than light because their deeds are evil." 

Mr. Chairman; How shall we most effectually enlighten and 
instruct our fellow men ; in the cause of temperance? la va- 
rious wa\s. — 

By the press, the most potent of all means, within the reach 
of man. Let us publich magazines, addresses, dissertations* 



w 



reports and newspapers. Let the truth be adapted to the hum- 
blest, as well as to fhe most philosophic mind Let the effects 
of in temperance he made known to alt men. — Upon proper- 
ty; — that it brings men to poverty and want.-— Upon heail h : — > 
that if undermines and destroys the constitution. — Upon the 
mind; — that its memory is shattered, its faculties weakened, 
and its balance and power of judging destroyed. — Upon char- 
acter;— that it utterly ruins every thing useful and good, gives 
the passions the dominion, and makes man an abject slave of 
vice, and renders him a miserable object of pity. 

The truth is great and will finally prevail. Let us not only 
publish it, in all its forms, but circulate and distribute it, in 
every city, town, village, hamlet, and dwelling. " *find they 
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make them free." 
Free f om the habit and slavery of intemperance. It we use 
the press with diligence, fidelity, and wisdom, it will accom- 
plish great good for our fellow creatures. 

As another means of promoting temperance, I look with 
deep interest to those worthy and good men, who have devoted 
themselves to this cause; — who have been appropriately deno 
rmnated. apostles of temperance. They have studied and in- 
vestigated the subject, scientifically and practically. They are 
able to develope its + rue character, and show its evils upon 
individuals, families and society, und from the truth of their 
statements by the most incontrovertible evidence, — evils of 
such extent and magnitude as may well alarm the most stupid 
and indifferent, and awaken anxious desire to arrest the pro- 
gress of the mighty destroyer Those men testify of what 
they have seen, and heard, and known. Let them be heard 
and believed for the truth's sake. 

In this great work, temperance societies are not to be over- 
looked. Indeed, they are the moving principle lo put all other 
means m operation. There can be no objection, to uniting for 
honest and benevolent objects. Union gives countenance, 
strength, and support to good resolutions, and good habits, es- 
pecially when -hey are opposed to fashion and custom. Men 
have been too long combined in sustaining fashions and customs 
at war with happiness, and manifestly leading to intemperance 
and ruin. They often, very often, regret that they feel bound, 
as gentlemen, to submit to the established usages of society 
which are so injurious in their effects. The free, and liberal, 
and generous treating andgiving away good spirit or any spirit, 
has been (made a test of hospitalit) and generosity. The evil 
of intemperance, has been in a measure created, by the false 



41 



and delusive fashions of social intercourse; and the numbers 
and characters of those who yet support them are truly formi- 
dable Let those who as;ree w T ith us in opinion, unite also, to 
support, countenance and sustain each other, in new rules, and 
regulations, and customs, in relation to ardent spirit, which the 
public good most imperiously demands. 

Mr. Chairman: Our own example is the best and most im- 
portant of all instruction. This we must not fail to give, if 
we would teach effectually Men are le^s regarded in words, 
and more watched and imitated in their conduct, than they 
sometimes imagine. Silent example speaks an universal lan- 
guage which is read by all people and ages, from the infant to 
the profoundest philosopher, and by nations and people the 
most savage and untutored, as well as by the most civilized and 
polished. It speaks a language, (with few exceptions) well 
understood bv all. Its influence is powerful : and if the exam- 
ple and life conform to the words and professions, it gives a 
sanction to character which is irresistible. Even vice is com- 
pelled to pay it unwilling homage. 

Finally, sir, allow me to express a hope, thai 'he friends of 
temperance may use their best efforts to advise and instruct 
their fellow men — By the agency of the press. — By public 
teaching. — By private conversation. — By example. May- 
God grant, that their efforts may prove effectual in reclaiming 
the intemperate, and especially in preserving the young, and 
sober, and inexperienced, from ever forming the habit of in- 
temperance. 

The Hon. John Tipton, United States Senator, from Indiana, 
then submitted the following resolution: 

Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to all 
who adopt the principles of the temperance reforma- 
tion, or who wish to promote it, to add the influence of 
their names and example as members of Temperance So- 
cieties, and in all proper ways to promote the formation 
of such societies, until they shall become universal. 

Mr. Tipton said, I am not accustomed to public debate, and 
were I disposed to discuss the subject now before you, the late- 
ness of the hour and the eloquent addresses of the gentlemen 
who have preceded me, would admonish me to remain silent. I 
have risen merely to add my testimony to the evil consequences 
of intemperance, and to the beneficial effects, of Tempo ance 
Societies. I believe that half of all the evils that befall us, may 

6 



42 

be traced to intemperance; and that great good has already been 
accomplished by the moral influence of these societies. * But 
much remains yet to be done, and I have no doubt it can. and 
will be effected, by adopting the rules laid down in the resolution, 
which I have had the honor to introduce. If gentlemen who 
take the lead in society, will practice entire abstinence themselves, 
and invite others to do the same; if the heads of families will dis- 
cord the use of intoxicating liquor from their families; it will go 
far to arrest the progress of this destroyer of our health, our pro- 
perty and our happiness; and sir, I would strongly recommend to all 
freemen throughout every part of this great republic, to withhold 
their suffrages from all candidates for public favor who are in the 
habit of intemperance. A steady observance of these rules can- 
not fail to do much good, both to the present and to the rising gen- 
eration With these views I submit the resolution for considera- 
tion and adoption by the meeting. 

The Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, United States Senator 
from New Jersey, then submitted the following resolution : 

44 Resolved, That the temperance reformation is fun- 
damental in its influence, up n all the great enterprizes, 
which have for their object, the intellectual elevation, 
the moral purity, the social happiness, and the immortal 
prospects of mankind." 

And in support of it, he said— 

Mr. Chairman — I could not better classify the great inter- 
ests, which are involved in this momentous subject, than is done 
for me by the resolution, with which I have been furnished. I 
beg leave to accompany it, with a few remarks — and first, as to 
the influence of the temperance reformation upon the intellectual 
elevation of mankind. The use of anient spirits, has in no one 
of its countless evils, been more humiliating to our race, than in 
the intellectual debasement of our fellow-men. Indeed, Sir, very 
few of us, can escape reproach here. For we have tolerated a 
practice, that invades the shelf of the Apothecary — that has taken 
down one of its active poisons, to introduce among the daily 
habits of society; and to give it a place among the rites of hospi- 
tality. We have suffered, this practice to destroy the firmest 
principles of social order — and to blast the fairest hopes. It has 
pushed its encroachments, by gradual but sure advances, through 
every class and condition of society, from the nursery to the 
judgment hall — from the Senate chamber to the Pulpit. It has 
struck the loftiest and proudest, and gathered its bloody trophies, 
with indiscriminate rapacity — and, Mr. Chairman, that we should 
so long, not only calmly witness these desolations, but connive 



43 

at, and help on, the ravages of intemperance — nay. Sir, that we 
should join in the c<W}spiracy against ourselves —and bare our own 
bosoms, as if to .receive the arrow, that was thirsting for our lite, 
is one of the flagrant contradictions in the human character, 
which no philosophy but that of the Bible, can explain. The di- 
rect and dreadful influence of ardent spirit, is to debase and en- 
slave the mind. Power and chains may enslave the body, and 
leave the spirit free — but this relentless tyrant, smites the soul. 
Do vou ask for proof ? see yonder bloated, staggering victim, urg- 
ing his trembling steps to the grog-shop — mark him, as the death 
dealing grocer, measures out his glass. The wretched man 
knows that his poor body must soon sink under such hard ser- 
vice — he knows, that disease and death are mingled in the gill 
cup — that the future for him, is woful in prospect, and he feels 
the present, to be utter misery. Perhaps, for a moment, he 
may relent — perhaps a gush of sensibility, may quicken the life 
blood at the heart, but it is too late — there is no strength in 
his purposes — there is no penitence in his tears — he drinks down 
the fatal liquid, that hurries him on to the retributions of eternity 
— where, Sir, in all the woes that afflict humanity, can be found 
a more pitiable bondage? 

The influence of this habit is not less destructive of moral 
purity. All vice is necessarily of this tendency, there is none 
certainly, more so. than intemperance. For it not only pollutes 
the fountains of sentiment, but every indulgence impairs the 
strength of the will.and the vigour of the understanding — all the 
noble aspirations that prompt to elevated enterprize and manlv 
conduct, sink before this degrading custom. 

Among the earlier fruits of intemperate drinking, is its fatal 
inroads upon a man's self-respect. He soon loses the sense of 
shame — and when this hand-maid of virtue departs, you may see 
him not only drink, but stagger, without emotion. The resolution 
which I have read, also regards the bearing of this blessed enter- 
prize on the social happiness of mankind — an<i Mr. Chairman, 
we well know how wide spread and fatal have been the ravages 
of this vice in this most interesting of all departments. Sir. it 
withers all the charities, that are garnered up in home — no bond 
so sacred — no pledge so dear— no duty to weighty, that it will 
not assail and sunder. It is a moloch that riots on tears. It 
makes war upon all the tender relations of father, husband, son, 
and brother — ah! Sir, could we look into the secret chambers of 
the soul, and witness the depth of that agony which heaves the 
bosom — could we count those scalding tears, of the once happy 
wife, as she retreats to weep alone over all the rejection, estrange- 
ment, and cruel rudeness of the man. who had been the delight 
of her youth, we should require no further argument, to dissuade 
us forever, from a practice, that leads to such bitter results. But 



44 



Sir, ail other consequences bear no comparison with those, which 
reach our immonal prospects — I invoke no afgtiment here — the 
records of inspiration conclude this point— >* No drunkard shall 
inherit the kingdom of Heaven" — -and what but such an em\. 
can be. must be, the issue of such a life? Excess, debauchery, 
the abuse of reason and the perversion of all the moral powers of 
the soul, prepare it, for the habitation of the worm that never 
dies— and yet the drunkard, will venture all this — approach him, 
in his cups, with an admonition from eternity— tell him of death 
and its tremendous issues — he braves it all — a thousand thunders 
could not move him. The language of his conduct is, living or 
dying, right or wrong, I will hold on, and rush upon the. perils of 
a lost soul. 

Such are some of the evils that for generations past, the use of 
irdent spirits has brought upon society. But, Mr. Chairman, we 
lave cause for grateful acknowledgments to the Father of mer- 
cies, th.it the spell is broken— the delusion has been struck by 
the light of truth, and its deformity exposed. 

It will be profitable to know, that the power of personal exam- 
ple,' with the blessing of God, has been the honored agent, in 
emancipating such multitudes of our fellow citizens from this 
bondage to a debasing appetite — Sir, personal example brought it 
in, and this alone, can drive it out. 

For the sake of others, we are most sacredly bound to exert its 
influence. It is a large portion of our talents given to be im- 
proved, as we shall answer it on our last trial — we cannot get 
away from the influence of our example, and it is constantly seed- 
ing forth its arguments to susain the cause or impair the princi- 
ples of virtue. Sir, I beg every member, to put the question to 
his own heart — "can I not forego a momentary, miserable gratifi- 
cation tu preserve o! rescue others from destruction?" Mr. 
Chairman, when such immense interests are involved — when our 
country implores us to interpose our example, and consecrate our 
influence, to afford lt^ht and energy to the progress of this 
scheme of mercy, if we love that country can we refuse? I trust 
not. r 

The Hon. Felix Grundy, United States Senator from Tennes- 
see, then rose and said, that he had been highly gratified and 
even delighted with the meeting. But, said Mr. G "'.let us not stop 
here. Let the facts and arguments which have here been present- 
ed, go out from this piace over the land. Let them be printed 
anu circulated universally. Let it be seen by the whole American 
people, -that men in high places, men whom the people have ele- 
vated to represent th'etn in the Congress of the United States, are 
the inends, the patrons, and die active, 'zealous and persevering 
promoters of the cause of temperance. Let them see that this bles- 



45 



sed cause has taken possession, even of the Capitol, and that it 
will hold possession: and from this elevated spot, this stronghold 
of liberty, will extend itself over the whole country He then 
expressed his readiness to aid in publishing the addresses which 
had been delivered and in their circulation through the land. 



On the 26th of February, the day appointed by the Amercan 
Temperance Society for simultaneous meetings in all the cities, 
towns, and villages in the United States, a meeting of members 
of Congress was holden. according to appointment, at the Senate 
Chamber, for the purpose of forming a Congressional Temperance 
Society. 



CONSTITUTION AND OFFICERS 



OF THE 



American Congressional Temperance Society 



Pursuant to previous arrangement, a number of Members of Congress 
and others, friendly to the cause of Temperance, assembled in the chamber 
of the Senate of the United States, on the evening- of the 26th February, 
1833. 

The Hon. Wm, Wilkins, was called to the Chair, and Walter Lowrie, 
appointed Secretary. 

The meeting was opened by prayer, by the Rev. Mr. Prcudfit. 

The lion. Theo. Frelinghctsen submitted for consideration, the follow- 
ing- constitution, which having been read and considered, was unanimously 
adopted. 

As the use of Ardent Spirit, is not only unnecessary, but injurious, as it 
tends to produce pauperism, crime, and wretchedness, and to hinder the 
efficacy of all means for the intellectual, and moral benefit of society, 
and also to endanger the purity and permanence of our free institutions, 
and as one of the best means for counteracting its deleterious effects, is 
the influence of United Example: Therefore, we, members of Congress 
and others, recognizing the principle of abstinence from the use of Ar- 
dent Spirit, and from the traffic in it, as the basis of our Union, do 
hereby agree to form ourselves into a society, and for this purpose adopt 
the following Constitution, viz: 

Article 1. This Society shall be called The American Congressional Tem- 
perance Society. 

Article 2. The object of tins Society shall be by example, and by kind 
moral influence, to discountenance the use of Ardent Spirit, and the traffic 
in it, throughout the community 

Article 3. Members of Congress, and all who have been members of Con- 
gress, officers of the United States government, civil and military, and heads 
of departments, who practically adopt the great principles of this Society, 
may, by signing the constitution, become members; and any former member 
of Congress, or other person entitled to membership, may be admitted, on 
addressing to the Secretary of this Society, a letter expressive of his desire- 
to be consideradlfcjfmember. 

Artnle 4. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice Presidents, 
Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor, who shall be chosen annually, and who 
shall perform the duties usually assigned to such officers, and who shall con- 
tinue in office until others are elected. 

Article 5. The Society shall annually appoint five persons, who, together 
with the officers of the Society, shall constitute an executive committee; 
three of whom shall form a quorum, and who shall from time to time take such 



48 



measures, as shall be adapted to render this Society most extensively useful 
to the country. 

Article 6. There shall be an annual meeting, at such time during the ses- 
sions of Congress, as the committee may appoint; and the president, and in 
his absence one of the vice presidents, at the request of the committee, may 
at any time call a special meeting of the Society. 

Article 7. The constitution may be altered by a recommendation of the 
executive committee, and a vote of two-thirds of the members present at 
any annual meeting. 

A committee of three having been appointed for that purpose, reported 
the following list of officers, who were duly chosen, agreeably to the 4th 
and 5th articles of the Constitution, viz: 

PRESIDENT. 

Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretarv of War. 



Hon. 



VICE PRESIDENTS. 


Samuel Bell, 


New Hampshire 


Gideon Tomlinson, 


Connecticut, 


John Reed, 


Massachusetts, 


Lewis Condict, 


New Jersey, 


William Wilkins, 


Pennsylvania, 


Thomas Ewing, 


Ohio, 


Felix Grundy, 


Tennessee, 


John Tipton, 


Indiana, 


Daniel Wardwf.il, 


New York, 


James M. Watne, 


Georgia. 



SECRETARY. 
Walter Lowrie, Secretary Senate U. S. 
TREASURER 
Hon. E. Whittleset, Ohio. 

AUDITOR. 
Hon. W. W. Ellsworth, Connecticut. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Hon. Theo. Frelinghutsen, New Jersey, 
Arnold Naudain, Delaware, 

Joh.v Blair, Tennessee, 

George N. Briggs, Massachusetts, 
Eleutheros Cook, Ohio. 

The meeting then adjourRed. 

WM. WILKINS, Chairman. 
WALTER LOWRIE, Secretary. 









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